HR 2262, the new SPACE Act, the Space Act of 2015, contains a hidden bomb. It’s in a part of the section titled “Space Launch System Update”, on pages 26-28 which reads:

It shall be the policy of the United States to use the Space Launch System for purposes that require a human presence directly to cis-lunar space and the regions of space beyond low-Earth orbit.

Says the Space Development Steering Committee’s R.D. Boozer, the author of The Plundering of NASA, “If the Senate passes this unamended and it gets signed, NASA will be forced to use the SLS to send people anywhere beyond low earth orbit! This appears to be a preventive measure to keep NASA from using alternatives (like the SpaceX Falcon Heavy launcher) for going to anywhere in cislunar space, to the Moon and beyond.”

Since SpaceX can perform deep-space missions for one-tenth the cost of the Space Launch System, this clause seriously hobbles what America can achieve in space. If you get the time, please write to your Senator or Congressman asking that this clause be struck from the new Space Act. Please.